Breast Cancer Facts

• All women are at risk of breast cancer.
• 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime.
• This rate has more than doubled in the past 30 years.
• Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women.
• Breast cancer is the leading killer of women ages 35 to 54.
• Breast cancer in women under 50 is more aggressive and virulent.
• 70% of breast cancers occur in women without a family history of the disease.
• Despite modern technology, breast cancer mortality has not been significantly reduced in more than 40 years.

The main reasons for this are:

• 90% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed with a palpable tumor size.
• Large numbers of women are without screening tests until a palpable lesion is felt.
• The majority of breast cancers revealed by mammography are not detected early enough.
• 25% of women die within the first 5 years and 40% within 10 years of their diagnosis.
• Over 90% of women diagnosed with Stage 1 cancers are alive 5 years later, unfortunately only 58%
  of breast cancers are diagnosed at this stage.
  
• No one procedure or method of imaging is solely adequate for breast cancer screening.